And Your Enemies Closer
by By Another Name
Summary: The course sounded idiotic when Slughorn described it, but it might prove useful after all.


_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

"Absolutely not."

Andromeda pushed the class schedule across the table. She tossed her dark hair and looked at Professor Slughorn, who smiled affably. "You can't take seriously believe that Charms, Transfiguration and Herbology are sufficient for a NEWT year."

Shrugging, Andromeda said, "It's not like I'm ever going to use any of it, again. I could use the free time. Mother has me booked at cotillions and teas almost every week this year." She thought a moment. "And I'm the vice president of the dueling club this year. Doesn't that count?"

Slughorn looked at a master list and then at her schedule. "Let's add Defense Against the Dark Arts, then." Ignoring her eye roll and huff, he continued, "I have a non-NEWT Potions class this year: Household Potions."

"Seriously?"

"You were saying that you were never going to use any of it again. I would submit that anyone who's so carefully preparing to be the glittering society wife your mother is planning upon will find these potions useful. Who knows? You might want a tummy soothing potion for one of your children, or a tonic after one of your dinner parties is a little too successful."

Andromeda looked at her schedule. "If I have to... Is that all?"

Slughorn chortled. "One more… You just have space for an experimental class that several professors are teaching as a team."

Her eyes narrowed. "Experimental? What would that be?"

"I believe we're calling it 'Magical Life in the Muggle World.' It falls under the general heading of Sociology"

Andromeda opened her mouth and shut it several times. "No. Of course not. My parents would—I can't possibly," she spluttered.

"Our world is increasingly encroached by the Muggle infrastructure, Andromeda."

"Not **my** world."

"Your world, too."

 _A thought flashed through her mind, a memory of walking toward the stairs to get to breakfast as a second year, when a silver flash suddenly catapulted over and over down the stairs. Andromeda had shrieked and cast a blasting curse. She was carefully approaching the immobilized object when a group of boys from the floor above started laughing raucously and several slapped one on the back. "Good one, Togs!" someone shouted. Andromeda reached the object, a metal cylinder, but not. Poking it with her wand, she saw that it was sort of like a series of connected rings._

" _It's a Slinky. It's just a giant spring made into a child's toy." A tawny-haired boy had come down the stairs to explain it to her. "You may have it, if you like."_

" _I don't need a filthy mudblood toy or a filthy mudblood to talk to me." She managed to turn on her heel in a way that would have made Druella Rosier Black proud, and stalked off before the tears of humiliation started to sting her eyes. The laughter of the nasty Hufflepuff boys echoed in her ears as jeers._

Feeling her cheeks turn red even now, Andromeda shook her head. "Absolutely not, Professor Slughorn. You know what my future holds. You know what my sister has done since she finished at Hogwarts. I don't have room for dealing with flapping Mudbloods. They're my natural enemies."

Slughorn leaned back in his chair. "Not your **natural** enemies, my dear. Perhaps **unnaturally…** "

He leaned back up and looked at her over the horn rimmed glasses he'd recently started wearing for effect. "You know, there was a fellow in China who once said something about keeping friends close and keeping enemies closer."

"That's… unhygienic." The idea was messy, disgusting, even. It didn't work in Andromeda's mind until suddenly it did. A lopsided grin coaxed the dimple into her left cheek. She was Slytherin enough to appreciate it. "Oh! So you're saying I should use this course to learn about Mudbloods so I can fight against them more effectively?"

"That would be one way to approach the syllabus. I think in any case you will find a use for it in your later life."

Bella would love the idea. She would do it in a heartbeat and bring yet another triumph to the House of Black. Bella wasn't at Hogwarts any more. This was Andromeda's opportunity. She would take this course and make use of it. She would shine like the constellation she was named for.

It wouldn't do to admit that she'd changed her mind so completely. She heaved a sigh. "If I really need another course, I guess I'll do it."

Andromeda knew a moment of concern when it turned out that she was the only Slytherin in the class. There were two 'Claws, who looked at her with their superior aloofness, looked at each other, and smirked. They thought they were better than she, the dirty birds. There was a clutch of lions over on one side, somehow managing to make their space seem the biggest part of the room with their loud voices and boisterousness. Then there was a clutch of 'Puffs. There were at least seven or eight of them, including that horrible boy whose name wasn't Togs but she couldn't be bothered to remember.

The course went fairly well for several weeks. Andromeda learned much about the fragility of the Muggle infrastructure. It wouldn't take much at all, she pondered, to cripple the water supply or the strange stringy things that Appolyon Pringle called "electrical wires." Yes, Appolyon Pringle was one of the teachers. Andromeda had threatened to write her parents over that one, but Slughorn coaxed her to wait it out. After all, some of the course material was outside of the usual academia.

"I'll give it a week. He better have good information, too," Andromeda groused. "I still haven't forgotten that you're using me as a token Slytherin."

The electrical portion of the class was actually fascinating. Andromeda learned about the need for those wire things and the danger and as Appolyon described the strange buildings called "power plants," she realized that she had what she needed. When she made her suggestions to certain people, surely some of the glory that Bellatrix crowed about would come to Andromeda. When the electricity portion of the class ended, she decided she could forgive Pringle for not being a proper teacher.

Andromeda was still upset about being the only member of her house in this class, and it reached a height on the day when the students were told to group together to work on projects in their other classes. She arrived at class after it started, still dressed for the luncheon her mother had brought her to. Everyone went silent when she walked through the door and then there was a low whistle. "Looks like I get Elizabeth Taylor!"

She turned and saw it was the not-Togs boy. "Excuse me?" she said.

Pomona—Professor Sprout that is; Andromeda had a hard time remembering she wasn't a student any more—cleared her throat. "Do you have a note? Ah, yes, thank you. We were just discussing the most recent project, Andromeda, which involves students of magical heritage teaming up with those who do not have magical heritage. This will be the last section of the course for this year."

"I have to work with a mudblood?"

Pomona cleared her throat. "You'll be working with a **Muggleborn** , Andromeda."

"I simply cannot." She ran to Slughorn's office. If he couldn't fix this, she would definitely write that letter to mother.

Slughorn was in class. "Why are these useless advisors always teaching?" she said to no one in particular.

"Because they're teachers, of course," said an overly affable voice behind her.

Gasping, Andromeda whirled around. It was not-Togs!

"Why did you follow me?"

"I told Sprout I could talk you round."

"You can talk all you want. I wasn't supposed to take this class. Professor Slughorn tricked me, and I'm going to write home. There is no way I'm being partnered by a dirty-blooded—"

Not-Togs put his actual finger over her lips. "You're as fiery as Elizabeth Taylor, too. I have to admit it fascinates me, but that's a conversation for later. Let's get a few things straight, today."

Andromeda pulled away sharply. "Don't touch me!" She pulled out her handkerchief and rubbed her lips on it. Dropping the handkerchief, she folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. "Talk all you want; we're not partners and I'm getting out of this class."

He picked up her handkerchief and put it in his pocket. "First of all, do you even know my name?"

"I know it's not Togs, but really, I don't care, Mudblood."

"It's Tonks. Edward Tonks actually, but everyone calls me Ted. After we're married, you may call me 'Mudblood' if you like, but I hope you'll say it more sweetly."

For the second time, Andromeda gasped, "I'm not marrying you!"

"Just checking that you were paying attention," he chuckled. "'Ted' will do, but 'Mudblood' is off limits for the duration of our project."

She shrugged dismissively. In half an hour, Slughorn's class would be over, and her participation in this fiasco of a class would be over, too.

"Secondly, since we're in Herbology together, I think we should do our project there."

That would actually make sense if they were going to do the project, which in twenty-nine minutes would be a non-issue.

"And thirdly, you will be doing this project and you will be doing it with me."

"I don't think so."

"I think so, because I happen to know something."

"I'm sure you know a great many things, but there's not a single one that matters to me."

"This one does."

Something in the tone of his voice made her look up. She had to admit to herself that she wondered what it could be. She'd be damned if she admitted it, however.

He leaned forward and whispered, "I know who enchanted my bat against Gryffindor last month."

Andromeda's eyes went wide, but she shrugged. "If some idiot Gryffindor couldn't stop messing about, it has nothing to do with me."

"Oh, but it wasn't a Gryffindor, and it has everything to do with you, Miss Andromeda Black. I found the book containing the deflation spell, and saw that it was last taken out of the library by none other than you."

 _It had been an amazing moment. She'd worked so hard to perfect the spell silently and with very little wand movement. She managed it well enough that he never touched the bludger for that entire game. She neither wanted nor needed anyone to know she performed the spell; the jeers from the Gryffindors about Tonks's inability to keep his bat up at the critical moment were reward enough._

He had her, but she had to try one last bit of bravado. After all, she was a Black, and that meant something. "I don't think it matters," she said, "because no one cares about those things."

"It matters a great deal to me," he said. "And I think it matters a great deal to you as well. McGonagall wouldn't let it go if she knew who did it."

"No she wouldn't," Andromeda whispered. There would be detention, and then Mother and Father would talk to her, and then what happened when the talking ended was unthinkable. The house held so many dark magical devices, some made just for the purpose of disciplining children. There was nothing to do or say.

"All right, Mr. Tonks, you win."

"I think we both do, and call me Ted. You are obviously aces at charms, and I'm pretty deft with the plants. Shall we?" He stretched his arm out to indicate they should walk back to class.

She sighed. She hemmed and hawed, but she went up the stairs. "I can't believe you knew it was me and yet you've forgiven me for that."

"Why shouldn't I? It was a crackerjack prank, and you carried it off to perfection."

She muttered something and refolded her arms.

"What's that?" he asked. After thinking for a minute, he laughed. "Do you mean you haven't forgiven me for the Slinky?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

"Oh yes you do," he said with a smile. "I still have it, you know, and if you like, I can show you how to make it walk down the stairs. It doesn't even need magic."

Andromeda shrugged and picked up the pace. She managed to sail through the classroom door ahead of him, and without looking right or left, she continued to her desk and sat down.

"Well?" asked Pomona.

"Miss Black has consented to be my partner," said Ted with as much ceremony and emotion as if it signified a great deal more than three weeks on a class project.

Pomona made a note on her record scroll. "Very well; that's everyone, then."

Andromeda rolled her eyes and huffed. Working with a mud—she guiltily looked over at Tonks, hoping he couldn't hear her thoughts—Muggle had better be worth all the trouble.

End

 _A/N: And, as we all know what eventually happened, this course was short lived. The Blacks would not have allowed it to continue while they still had one daughter at Hogwarts._

 _Thank you to the wonderful and talented Blue Artemis for her look-through._

 _This story was written for a challenge designed by the Teachers Lounge. The prompt was "frenemies." Does it succeed? Mash the button and drop me a line!_


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